Thursday, January 31, 2008
A Look at the Candidates as of January 31 - First up, the Democrats
Well, its January 31 and finally time for me to get back to posting (have been sick yet again for the past month) and especially to weigh in on the Presidential race.
Lets start off with the Democrats:
John Edwards – well, he stepped out of the race yesterday, but I find his campaign to be very interesting. Basically Edwards was willing to tell people, the little people – like me – that he would fight for us and that he would give us lots of free stuff at the expense of the rich and powerful. Of course his well known duplicity in this – the mega-house, the working for a hedge fund, the $400 haircut and the like – made him seem comical. But we cannot forget that Huey P. Long, governor of Louisiana in the 1930s was also comical – and very popular. The good news then and today is that most Americans are still not motivated to vote for people who are offering them a “free” everything.
If you have not read The Forgotten Man, easily the best book of 2007, you need to and soon. What you find there is that, much to the surprise of so many who have not really looked at this period of time, America was pretty much offered socialism by F.D.R., Long and others, but they ultimately said no thanks! It is good news that we still don’t buy this line, at least not from John Edwards.
Hillary Clinton – Okay, truth time – I like her. I always have, even as she bugs the daylights out of me. She is very competent (not however the smartest woman in America, as the smartest anything is never in politics), and has managed to do a great deal in life while being tethered to her husband. Is she a closest socialist? Of course, but she is also a realist, and realists in the Democratic Party are few and far between. You know that she is sometimes telling people, especially the Far Left, things that she has no intention of doing, which is troubling from an honesty point of view, but it also shows you, in her way of response, that she is troubled by the kook fringe of her party.
Most Americans are not in the same place as she is on the issues. But many will vote for her because she is a woman, many because they are longtime Democrats and that is what they do, and some because they know that she is the best alternative for a sane policy structure in the Democratic Party. I don’t want her as my President, but I still do like her.
Barak Obama – what to say about the man who is greeted by worshipping crowds. Well, to start of with, I have to say that I am getting annoyed by the man. Look, shouldn’t someone actually have done something to be running for President? He is a lawyer, did edit the Harvard Law Review (a great thing to put on your resume but it does not actually prepare you for much), he was an undistinguished State Senator in Illinois, and he won a Senate race that was radically changed by allegations of kinky sex by the then leader in the race, the Republican Jack Ryan. He is very much an accident of history.
What Barak has is a compelling narrative, at least told by him. If you took away his photo and voice, and looked at his record and positions – you have a Ted Kennedy without any service. Is this really the man to whom many Democrats want to give their party?
He keeps promising an end to divisive politics, and a beginning of a period of unity. Just how does intend to do that? Is he the Messiah? Can he take away sin, greed, disease and death? If not, then the only other way to do this is to cart off his political opponents. But this passes for real rhetoric. The man is a complete cipher, and history tells us to never elect a cipher – what you end up getting is rarely what you want.
Sooner or later, whether it is this primary season, the general election if he wins, or in 2012, he is going to have to tell us what he is going to do to make our country better. Once we hear that….well, I don’t think the narrative is going to be so compelling. Bill Clinton got a lot of heat for essentially blackballing Obama as the “Black Candidate,” but the fact is that his policies and positions are the standard ones held by the Black Caucus in the Democratic Party. He is the Black Candidate, not because of his color but because he is, essentially, Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, or Barbara Lee, with a better face, better voice, and better narrative.
Barak Obama is, as so many have said, the Oprah of the political world. When style and presentation matter more than substance, outcomes, and the reality of the world, we have become a nation simply waiting to suffer under either tyranny or imbecility
If we became a one-party state (which again is the only way I can see Barak being able to deliver his “unity” policy), and the Dems were the party, I would vote for Hillary Clinton. Her policies, her justices, and her appointments would be hard to swallow, but at least you know she is ready for the job and, being the first woman president, she probably would not be willing to put up with much guff from our enemies.
Now, how about the Republicans?
